For almost all of the youth teams the hockey season has come to end. I hope your Knight learned a few things along the way and more importantly enjoyed playing the game.

It is inevitable that all teams experience bumps as the season goes along. What we need to do as an association is recognize the situation and take steps to minimize or correct them.

We have four board positions up for election this April. Please consider running or if you think that someone you know would be a potential candidate contact a member of the Nominating Committee. The association does not run without involvement and input from the members. If you want change or see areas that need improvement then get involved.

During the off season encourage your Knight to stay active -- play baseball, golf, soccer, lacrosse or whatever sport your son or daughter enjoys. If you choose to keep those hockey legs going there are a variety of available hockey leagues to join.

I would like to personally thank all the coaches, team treasurers and managers in the association for their dedication and time. Also, thanks to the volunteers who did their required and in some cases more than their share of hours for the betterment of the IYHA. Finally, a big thanks to the parents for making the trips to the rink.

To Cheryl Mason and the SuperRink Committee for the great job at both the Thanksgiving and January Tournaments and to Torri Johnson for her work on the website a big thank you.

That’s all for now.

Tom

REMINDER:

April is our Annual Election Meeting. Four volunteer board positions are available - Vice President, Treasurer, Boys and Girls Coordinators. Please be thinking about your interest in these positions or someone else to be nominated. Below are the candidates (listed alphabetically by position) as of this time.

I'd like to be considered a candidate for an open board position. I have an interest in the BoysProgramCoordinator and below I will include a brief paragraph about myself.

Who is TylerFitzel:

I graduated from St. Paul Johnson in 1995, obtained a B.A. degree to teach science from Concordia College, Moorhead. I coached 3 years of PeeWee hockey for MYHA (Moorhead). My first teaching position was at Chisago Lakes Middle School teaching 7th grade Life Science. I coached the Varsity and JV Golf program, a Bantam B hockey team and served on the CLYHA Board as Boys Program Coordinator. I then taught in Thief River Falls for 3 years. While in Thief River Falls, I taught 9th and 10th grade science, coached Varsity and JV Boys Golf, ran the Summer golf programs, youth and adult for Community Education and had many positions across the different hockey programs. I was the goaltending coach for both the high school and youth programs. I was a PeeWee hockey coach, in which we made back to back trips to the State Tournament (3rd place and 5th place). I also did color/play-by-play for the local radio station for each High School game. My job as teacher was reduced to half time and I was offered a job at Johnson High School, where I now teach various science classes. I coached in the Johnson youth program for 3 years. 1 Bantam and 2 PeeWee. I was the USA Hockey ACE/HEP coordinator for 2 years. I left to begin refereeing youth hockey and took a position this past year coaching at Irondale High School (Varsity and JV). I have been coaching Boys and Girls golf at St. Agnes Schools in St. Paul for 4 years now. I was also voted on to the Executive Committee of the Minnesota Public Golf Association this past fall. I coordinate and run the local, regional, state and international science fair for Johnson. I am also the Natural Resource and Environmental Sciences Academy leader at Johnson.

My name is Doug Loahr, and I am running for boys coordinator. I have two sons at the Bantam level in the Irondale Association. I have coached my sons from Mites up to PeeWees. I have also coached at the high school level at Totino Grace High School. I played hockey in high school and in college.

If I am voted in as boys coordinator, there are some items I would like to address. First of all, I would like to address the try out process. I believe we should start earlier and limit the number of try out days to 4 (this would not include warm-ups). Secondly, I believe we need to look at the number of clinics we have throughout the year. I do not want to eliminate the skills end of the clinics, but possibly change the timing and amount of them we have scheduled. Third off, non-parent coaching is an issue that needs to be addressed as I feel there are pro's and con's of both. I will be happy to elaborate, but don't want to discuss this at length at this time. What I do want to say is the best qualified person needs to be coaching, whether or not that is a parent or not. My fourth point is that I believe we need the high school coach to be more involved so our children are more prepared for the caliber they will be expected to play at the high school level. Lastly, I would really like to address the level of play Irondale Hockey is at, and where we are as an association. For example, we need to get the children playing at the proper levels to compete and be successful. This may entail not having an "A" team at certain levels.

My name is Mark Mohar and I am running for the position of Boy’s Program Coordinator. Two seasons ago, we began a player and coach skills development program. The return of the program to focusing on fundamental skills was a necessary step for the sustainability of the program. Our skills had been lagging behind programs not only comparable in size to Irondale but also the TC District (now District 1) programs. Since then, we have begun skills development nights and goalie clinics to teach the basic skills and team concepts of hockey. We started this program with the expectation that this program would require patience and would be an evolving process each year. We are starting to see the results of the skill clinics now as several of our teams have won multiple playoff games and we had our team in a Minnesota Hockey Regional tournament for the first time in several years.

The next few years will be very important to the sustainability of the Irondale program. We need to continue to emphasize skills and basic team concepts at the Mite, Squirt and PeeWee levels, building a base of fundamental skills so that when players move on the Bantam and high school levels they can be taught higher level team play concepts. We need to educate our coaches on how to teach these skills to players at all levels. As we move forward, we need to keep improving the quality of our ice time so that Irondale will be competitive for years to come.

My name is BoParsons. I am formally expressing my interest in the BoysCoordinatorposition via this e-mail. I have 1 son in the Irondale program. My experience dates back to 1999 where I coached Mites in Roseville from the '98-'99 season through the '02-'03 season. During the '02-'03 season in Roseville I was head coach of both a Mite team and a Squirt C team. For the '03-'04 season my children moved to the North St. Paul Association with their mother. NSP had non-parent coaches in place at the Squirt A and Pony levels where the boys were placed. During '03-'04 I took a position as a Non-Parent Head Coach of a Squirt C team. In '04-'05 I again took on double duty as the Assistant Coach of a PeeWee C team in NSP and Co-Head Coach of the 1995 Wisconsin Fire Tier 1 AAA team that plays in the Mid-America Hockey League (MAHL). My last season of coaching association was '04-'05. The boys again relocated this time to Mounds View and have been members of the Irondale Association ever since. During the off season in 2004 through 2007 (and continuing through 2010) I have coached the AAA Minnesota Lumberjacks playing in the Minnesota Showcase Hockey AAA league. The team has grown and developed together and become one of the top 2 teams in the league. My hockey travels have also allowed me to take teams to Calgary, Alberta, Canada and Las Vegas, NV for international tournaments. This summer along with the Lumberjacks I will be coaching 1995 Team Synergy for the Easton AAA Hockey Club.

Short term goals are defined as follows. First and foremost a completely independent tryout process. To accomplish this I would suggest an interview process to be advertised through a free posting on the Minnesota Hockey website. I would be looking for 3 to 4 graders at each level, compensation would be competitive with nearby associations. Also, through a similar interview process I would suggest non-parent coaching at both the PeeWee A and Bantam A levels (I believe it is already in place at the Bantam level). I would suggest to the board that the tryouts go from 7 sessions to 5 sessions and after 3 sessions the players get divided into an A/B pool and a B/C pool. An immediate order of business would be setting up communication lines with all necessary parties. Along with that one of the communication lines would be initiating cooperation with the High School program to try to provide more system ready players once they get to that level. For player development I would look to HBTC and/or Acceleration MN for teams in 10, 15, or 20 session packages for each team depending on cost. In addition to that I think 1 on ice edging clinic per month would be good. For coaches I think it as important as everything else if not more important that they also attend a informational association wide meeting once per month that not only could be used for continuing education but also for feedback from others. The most important asset I have utilized in my coaching tenure is the knowledge of my peers and learning from them as I hope they have been able to take something from what I have done.

A few long term goals to be defined as accomplished by the end of my 3 year tenure are as follows. I would recommend phasing into non-parent coaching at the PeeWee B level and the Bantam B level as well as giving strong consideration to non-parent coaching at the Squirt A level. Through the communication with the High School listed above, I would like to install an outline per say of the High Schools playbook which should not only increase the youth programs success but also the High Schools success. Tied in with the above I think we can create a strong philosophy that starts with the High School and trickles down to the Association Board then to the Coaches then to the Players and finally to the Parents. All of this I believe will create a positive experience that will increase the success of teams association wide and eventually increase the association’s marketability and numbers through positive presentation.

In summary, I am doing this because I love to teach and I have a passion for the sport of hockey. One thing I have presented to every player I have ever coached is "Anybody can score a goal, it takes a real hockey player to create a goal. Which one are you? And more importantly which one do you strive to be?". My personal goal would be to make sure every player had every opportunity to have fun while learning a sport that has given so much to so many of us. If I do my job along with the coaches and teach, and the players do their job and have fun while learning then the success of the team is inevitable.

CEP Level 4 '05-'06

References:

Tim Hawkinson - President Minnesota Showcase Hockey and Director of the AAA League.

Cheryl and Austin Horton - Mother and Player - Coached Austin since he was a Roseville Mite.

Paul Omodt - My Assistant coach for 4 years w/ the Jacks and now w/ Easton. Former St. Louis Park Board President

My name is MarkRupp, and I am running for the position of Irondale Youth Hockey Boys Coordinator. My wife Marla and I have been married for almost 15 years, and we have lived in New Brighton the entire time. We have 4 children who range in age from 12 years old to 3 years old. Our 2 oldest have been involved in the Irondale Youth Hockey program for a number of years. The 2 youngest have already been skating and have expressed an interest in playing. I tell you this so you understand how invested I currently am in our youth hockey program, as well as in its future. My personal background in hockey is quite extensive. I have been a player, coach, or administrator for almost 40 years. As an administrator, I have done everything involved in running a men’s hockey league, just short of driving the Zamboni. The passion that I bring to the table is twofold. My first passion is for our kids. They need to have the best experience possible to ensure they want to continue playing this wonderful game. My second passion is for the game itself. I want to ensure our kids not only learn the correct fundamentals of the game, but also learn to respect and appreciate the game. I have a number of ideas to promote positive changes, and I look forward to continued conversations to make Irondale Youth Hockey Association the best organization it can be. If you decide to entrust me with this position, I look forward to meeting each and every one of you throughout the summer and upcoming seasons.

I stepped in as Irondale Girls Coordinator during the 2006-2007 season and I am interested in running for the position of Girls Coordinator for the next term. I have been involved with Irondale Youth Hockey for eleven years with our four children. Our three girls are in the Irondale Youth Hockey Program and played at the U8, U10 and U12 levels this past season and our son is now with the Irondale High School team. I helped coached my sons teams when he was younger and with my daughters teams for the past 3 years. I would like to continue my involvement in IYHA working to grow our program. I feel we have made some positive steps towards that. We doubled our U8 program this year, and had several new skaters at both the U10 and U12 levels and continued to be competitive and have winning seasons. I believe in doing what is best for the kids and for our association. I would enjoy the opportunity to serve you again.

We need up to 3 volunteers to assist in selecting a new firm to serve as our auditor and to prepare our tax returns and other forms. It is anticipated that the commitment of time will be no more than 3 hours. The work would include no more than one hour reviewing our Request for Proposal via e-mail, and no more than two hours meeting to select the new firm. If volunteers have accounting experience that would be helpful. They will serve on a committee with Tom Lucarelli, Tom O'Keefe and our new treasurer for this task. The work is anticipated to be complete by the middle of May. Please let Tom O'Keefe () know if you are interested. Thank you.

If there is interest, we will also discuss with this group the formation, structure and charge of an audit committee.

1) Keep checking the website during the off-season for news updates and for registration information

2) The Sponsorship Report through February is posted in the Documents section. Please share with your sponsors!

3) If you have any news items to report through the off-season please send them by clicking on the Feedback button

4) The results for all Youth and Girls teams and stats for some teams are now entered for the season. To see them, click on Results from your team page. There is a link for a printable version. To see stats, click on Statistics from your team page. There is a tab for skaters and another for goalies. There is a link for a printable version. You can also click on your player's name and get their stats by game (if it was tracked). If you click on the link that says Division Top 20, it will show the blended results of the Boys Leagues for all Irondale teams that entered stats throughout the year (A PeeWees, B PeeWees, A Squirts, B Squirts, and C Bantams).

Also kudos to Torri and the Irondale website – below is an email from the owners of the software stating that they are featuring OUR website on their homepage!

“I wanted to touch base with you and let you know that we have added the Irondale Youth Hockey website to our list of featured sites on the LeagueAthletics.com homepage. We were really impressed with how your site has gotten better over the years and is now one of the better sites that we host.

I’d also like to thank you for your consistent participation in the Administrators Forum. Your answers, along with those of other Admins, keep a lot of questions from getting to the support level and we greatly appreciate that.

Squirt A - lost their first game in a double overtime heartbreaker to Washburn. They beat Johnson and lost to Como to end their playoff experience. This young team played tough and with heart the whole season. They worked hard and played hard all year. Good luck to you boys next year

Squirt B - lost their first game against Washburn Blue in a double overtime heartbreaker. They won over Como in their next game. However, they lost another heartbreaker in a shootout to Washburn Orange to end their playoff experience

Squirt C - beat Richfield in a shootout to win their knockoff game. Lost to Highland Blue and Minneapolis Park Purple to end their District 1 season

PeeWee A (rank #2) - lost their first game to Highland. They won their next game against Washburn and then beat Johnson. They WIN the 2nd place trophy against Highland and headed to the state regional playoffs

PeeWee A regional playoff recap - Our PeeWees played their first Regional game against the 4th best team in Minnesota (according to MNHockeyRankings.com) and was not able to pull out a big upset. Their 2nd game was against the #1 team from District 4, Faribault, and they ended Friday with their 2nd loss of the day. They played the #1 team in Minnesota, Edina, Saturday and played their best game of the tournament but still came up short ending their playoff experience.

PeeWee B (rank #2) - beat Johnson then lost to Mpls Park. They came back with a victory over Washburn and lost to Richfield Friday night to end their playoff experience.

PeeWee C (rank #3) - lost to Highland Blue in the first round, but came back with wins against Richfield and Edgcumbe Green (in OT). They lost to the DinoMights to end their playoff experience.

Bantam A (rank #6)- lost to Highland and to Mpls Park to end their playoff experience.

Bantam C (rank #3) - beat Mpls Park on Sunday, then lost to eventual champion Highland and then beat Edison. They lost to Washburn to end their playoff experience.

Girls 10UB Gold (rank #3) - They won their first game against Highland and their second game against Stillwater. They lost their third game against Washburn. They won a close game over the Irondale 10UB Maroon team. In the 3rd Place Championship Game, Richfield scored the game winner with somewhere between .01 and .00 seconds left in OVERTIME and it stands as a true buzzer beater. Everyone should be proud of this great group of girls. They finished 3rd of 14 in the regular season and 4th of 14 in the play-offs! 20-6-3 overall.

Girls 10UB Maroon (rank #2) - They received a bye in the first round. Their first game was against Washburn and they came up short. In their following game, they pounded Highland and beat Stillwater. The lost to Irondale Gold to end their playoff experience.

Girls 12UB (rank #6) - beat Roseville in their knockoff game. Won over #3 Mounds View in overtime. Lost to Highland Blue, then to Highland Red to end their District 2 playoff experience.

IYHA Board Meetings are open meetings.

Please feel free to come to the meetings. If you wish to have a copy of any information which is distributed at any meeting, please email or call Jean and it will be mailed to you. Upcoming dates for 2007/2008 Board meetings are the

third Thursday of every month at 6:30 p.m. Our meetings are held at the New Brighton Family Service Center.

Meetings will be: April 17, May 15, June 19, July 17 and August 21.

NOTE: If you wish to be on the agenda for the meeting, please contact the IYHA President.

Lake Region Board Meetings:

Lake Region Hockey meetings are open meetings. Contact Jeanne Falconer for dates and times of the next meetings.

Sponsorships:

Sponsors for teams are listed below. This part of the newsletter will continue throughout the rest of the IYHA season. Please notify Jean Aukee of any additions or corrections. (Please forward information about websites and addresses, etc.) Many thanks to our sponsors!

One correction to the minutes - Ice Sheet from SSR not $500 million – s/b $500,000

Approval of Consent Agenda Items – Chris Drews moved to add item e of new business (Jean as nomination committee board member) to the consent agenda. TO second – all approved – motion carried. Tom O moved to approve the consent agenda items. JF second – all approved - motion carried.

a.Pete Carlson – SSR Ice Purchase – Pete won’t be able to make it tonight – his daughter’s U10 girls game tonight –will come to an upcoming meeting to be determined

b.Board Election – April 2008 – nominating committee needs to solicit new members unless at least one has already volunteered, paragraphs in March newsletter, for April meeting – ask for questions of candidates – they will be discussed along with bio at election – reaffirm voters eligibility – rostered coach, child in program or board approval – recognition at next meeting

d.Selection of Auditor – April 20th – fiscal year end – June, July, August pull data together – auditor report due in November – has names of 3 auditors – Torri gave tom a contact too from Excel – Tom O and Tom L select auditor – new treasurer participate – Tom O will work with new treasurer thru summer

g.Fundraising Committee Update – Tom O will be gone in a few months but need to make sure we avoid fraud – therefore need to be careful with what we do with money coming into the assn – how do business without an account? If have an account – need a treasurer – will they have expenses? Do they need a budget? Cheryl and I thought money would go right to Tom O Keefe – fundraising committee trying to be their own entity – they should just function with us – member of board should be on fundraising committee – walked thru Rich’s document and discussed – sponsorship should be different than fundraising? Lake Region does accounting for tournaments so they can stay an entity – now maybe it should be IYHA and MV accounting – used to do SSR Spectacular check book – Tim will no longer be the Raffle guy – he recommends just one raffle per year – no January raffle. Everyone review Rich’s document and give comments to Rich before the next board meeting so he can come up with another draft. Cheryl will be point person if Rich or anyone has questions.

Board Roundtable:

President: Tom Lucarelli. – March 9th – IYHA selected by MN Wild for every save made by our goalie that night, we get $10 from American Family – As Tom has said before we need money for families in need and to encourage other kids to join the program – MN Wild also chose us to sell programs on March 26th – Jean will send email to all those who volunteered so far to see what other kids could come – no more parents – Chamber receipt to Tom O – Boy’s high school hockey thank you and program – Chamber – get brochure put together for all other members – season wrapping up – still some kids in playoffs

Vice President: Cheryl Mason. – final tournament accounting – do preplanning for next year – no January raffle is a good idea – maximize November raffle

Secretary: Jean Aukee. – It is time for the end of the season survey – suggestion to do 2 surveys? – one earlier in winter – registration, warm-ups and tryouts – something electronic? Jean check with Torri – Mike hasn’t gotten a lot of them, Mark relays all his info to his coaches, Board should take ½ a meeting to review results and communicate back to the assn highlights – Bob reviews them and talks to coaches about items – Jean and Torri do proposal for March meeting for this year’s survey - Irondale Girl’s Hockey Program sent to the board with a thank you card

Treasurer: Tom O’Keefe. – 2 handouts – March 30th or April 15th – get mileage reports from coaches – Tom O move to enforce coaches mileage reimbursement requests due by March 30th – CD 2nd – all in favor – motion carried. Revenue is down this year because of pull tabs being way down – Tom O makes some assumption of what bills and what income will still come in so we can tell teams how much they owe. Tom suggestion that $1000 from Wild program sales go to this year’s revenue – some revenue and some expenses are to the team and some to the individual players

Girls Program Coordinator: Mike Nundahl. – girl’s coaches meeting a couple weeks ago – spring teams being formed – U10 maroon were 1st place at Breezy point and U10 gold took 4th place

Initiation Program Coordinator: Bob Gabler. – Acceleration sports would like to propose a summer program for initiation - will follow up next month. Need to address low numbers of players - program is not sustainable at <20 new players per year. B Mite coach resigned. No initiation raffle this year - not enough interest in volunteer leadership.

Tim F - SAYB is down in numbers too – at some point need to start merging Irondale and MV at the lower levels

District Representative: Chris Drews. – 2 handouts – Chris missed the meeting – Niki sent him a couple pdf files – 2 disciplinary hearings last month – one Highland – USA hockey fine – on probation – Southwest coach kicked out of game – Irondale coach had an issue with poor officiating this year – need to give comments to District 1 – how many refs did District 1 lose over the summer – hired a lot of new – playoff brackets changed multiple times – still need 2 volunteers for District playoffs –Tom O wants to know details of cost on Chris’ handout

Ice Commissioner: Jackie Rog. – not here – no report

Registration Coordinator: Jeanne Falconer. –- USA and MN Hockey may mandate online registration – see what programs all assns use – see if there is any consistency – Jeanne sent it to Torri to get our website details – anyway to do all 3 online and keep it clean – emailed managers with input on no volunteering? Preparing checks to be returned to individuals and have reminded the managers about getting the team books back in when they are completely done with ice.

Equipment Manager: Tom Johnson. – not here but update from Mike – Tom is at a playoff game – sample to Dave’s and Letterman’s for estimate on jerseys – Caroline Beckman Bell still offering to sponsor and put name on back of jerseys

Standing Reports:

Player and Coach Development: Mark Mohar. – no report

Lake Region: Jeanne Falconer. – we might get another $2000 from pull tabs this year – closer to 50% of MV size (422 and we have 242) – Big Ten as of April 1st – all money this year is going to set up costs of all these new sites – new Lake Region game – Champps had a theft with pull tabs of about $1000 – Moes did good along with Katies – Our Bar and Grill lost $800 because of start up costs – Big Ten will not compete with Moes – different nights – paid $30,000 in taxes last month – March get some back because of less sales - $1600 will be given to Totino Grace football from Moes because of owner and original contract – IYHA and MV kids boundary issue – Chris D will contact Tom Mickus and follow-up on the district map showing what kids should go where.

Would you like to have something published in the newsletter? Please contact Jean Aukee. Would you like something on the Web Site? Contact Torri Johnson at
Information you share is helpful in keeping our members up to date about activities of the Irondale Youth Hockey Association! (The deadline for the next month’s newsletter is the first of each month.) Thank you!